Ideas for NRC 2015

[Braveheart81]

There's plenty of all day events that do just in fine in Australia. Test cricket, formula 1, several large horse racing events, Australian Open tennis, many music festivals. You might be right about most of these being once in a year events, but so is the 7's and so would be a double header.

The perceived importance or relevance of an event is the primary driver of crowd numbers in my opinion.

Test cricket gets roughly double the crowd sizes to go to the Ashes than anything else in Australia.

Music festivals attract audiences relative to the size of the biggest acts playing. If you want 50,000 people at a festival, your headliners need to be acts that fill arenas.

I think an NRC double header would attract more people than for a single game, but I think the overall crowd at this stage is unlikely to be more than double the crowd you would have got at a single game.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

I just don't get the whole push for double headers....you are just trying to get people to allocated 2 hours of their time to something - not 4 hours.....people are time poor...that is why cricket has gone down the path of T20 etc....

Sorry but just wrong time to be focussing on double headers and this is not going to grow the NRC as an entertainment product at this point....linked with a food and wine festival, wallaby curtain raiser yes...but you need to acknowledge you are struggling to sell current product so why focus on giving them even more of the same product....completely wrong focus guys...

 

[Train Without a Station]

Rugbynutter that's my view.

Now if they said in order to save on ground hire and ensure an additional game was being telecast that otherwise wouldn't, I could understand that logic behind the decision. But I think it's foolish to expect a double header will grow attendances beyond what the two individual games would have got individually (and likely less actually).

 

[Quick Hands]

Does anyone know who selects the matches times for the non-televised games? Is it the home team or is it an ARU decision?

 

[Jagman]

Does anyone know who selects the matches times for the non-televised games? Is it the home team or is it an ARU decision?

I don't know the answer to that but it seemed to me that the default was Saturday 3pm local time. Sometimes there were 3 games at that time slot. This was moved around on the weekends of the AFL and NRL finals though.


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[Train Without a Station]

Rising played a Sunday game or two I think. How very Rugby League.

 

[Quick Hands]

I don't know the answer to that but it seemed to me that the default was Saturday 3pm local time. Sometimes there were 3 games at that time slot. This was moved around on the weekends of the AFL and NRL finals though.


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I was just asking because a couple of the Rays matches were played at strange times. One in particular was 5.30pm on a Saturday evening (which clashed with the Sea Eagles playing a semi-final at the SFS). It's never easy and league semis and other things are often a moveable feast. One thing that can be learnt from the soccer experience is if there is no opposition, you've got a much better chance of getting a foothold.

 

[Jagman]

I think there was another Sydney game at 3pm that day so maybe it was hoped that some people would use the 30min window to get to Brookvale.


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[Quick Hands]

I suspect that maybe they might have tried a couple of different times as an experiment. 3pm Saturdays or Sundays would be best bet for them moving forward> (If they aren't on Thursday night)

 

[Omar Comin']

I think an NRC double header would attract more people than for a single game, but I think the overall crowd at this stage is unlikely to be more than double the crowd you would have got at a single game.

If you just put an NRC double header in the fixture list and did nothing special around it. No out of the ordinary promotions or anything, just a couple of games of rugby at one venue, then I would agree with you.

But if you created an occasion around them, built them up as a festival of rugby to open the NRC season, a celebration of community rugby, and spent months promoting it through social media and other channels (e.g. at late season Waratahs and Reds matches, during broadcasts, at club rugby games etc) then I think you could easily more than double the crowd you'd get at a single game. And if you do get a big crowd then it helps change the perception of the entire competition.

If the English can start their domestic league with a London double header that attracts a crowd of 5+ times that of a single game, then I see no reason why Australians can't do the same - at least in Sydney.

Maybe in Brisbane you could get the same or better crowd with just a QLD Country vs Brisbane City match instead of a double header - but in Sydney at least, there are 4 NSW teams you could put on at the same venue and so you'd be promoting to the entire Sydney (and beyond) rugby community and fan base.

 

[TOCC]

An article in the Australian from Gary Flowers, chairman of the Rays.

Pretty damming assessment in the lack of involvement from NSWRU/Waratahs and the ARU.

“The level of awareness was not great,” said Flowers, who created the short-lived Australian Rugby Championship in 2007.

“The product was great, but everything was put together fairly quickly. There needs to be a level of promotion around this competition.

While the ARU and the NRC franchises needed to promote the development competition, Flowers said the NSWRU also had to become involved. “To be stating the bleeding obvious, NSW and the Waratahs had no involvement with this competition,” Flowers said.

“It’s not as if they weren’t given the opportunity, but they had no involvement and they need to have an involvement because these clubs are providing their players. These clubs are providing the pathways of Waratahs of the future. Queensland was intimately involved in their teams. They ran their teams. Every other franchise the states were intimately involved because they owned the teams.

“NSW was the only one where the state body took little or no interest or role. They should, because arguably they are the major beneficiary.”

 

[Rugbynutter39]

An article in the Australian from Gary Flowers, chairman of the Rays.

Pretty damming assessment in the lack of involvement from NSWRU/Waratahs and the ARU.

Flowers is totally on the money. Given NSW supplied 4 of 9 teams the lack of involvement of NSWRU and Waratahs IS ONE OF BIGGEST SINGLE AND MOST DAMMING ISSUES FOR NRC AND NSW NRC TEAMS PARTICIPATING.

They need to address this for next years NRC comp and follow QLDRU and REDS lead who performed better on this front and have better base to work off.

 

[Gibbo]

I find it ironic that the guy who is now leading Yachting Australia's restructure in line with the Sports Commision guidelines is a successful Rugby Adminsitrator - Matt Carroll. Sailing in Australia is currently structured in a very similar way to Aus Rugby. The changes to the constituion from the suburban clubs up to the National high performance group are exactly what needs to happen in Aus Rugby.

 

[oldschoolcoach]

The 2014 version is now all done and dusted, and it would appear that there were more positives than negatives arising.

Remembering that Australian Rugby is pretty much broke and doesn't have a lot of money to throw at the competition, if you were in charge, what would you change for NRC 2015?

very interesting to hear that because i had actually heard from a very high profile sourse that the nrc is done. tipping pulver will be gone by feb 2015

 

[Quick Hands]

very interesting to hear that because i had actually heard from a very high profile sourse that the nrc is done. tipping pulver will be gone by feb 2015

Pulver's departure would be a plus for the game, but the disappearance of the NRC would be a huge step backwards.

 

[Dave Beat]

Pulver's departure would be a plus for the game, but the disappearance of the NRC would be a huge step backwards.

And the replacement comes from GAGR -
Don't have time to read every page but some great visions are posted here, and almost certain some of the readers, and posters are very influential people who could role out a number of the idea's.
All those ideas - the 1% ers - could be what we need shuffle through and look at. The best teams complete the 1%ers at 100%.

 

[Quick Hands]

One idea for the NRC 2015 is for NSW Country Eagles to have their training base at Cambelltown (which has re-affiliated with NSW Country via the Illawarra RU). Play at least one home game there.

 

[Pfitzy]

And the replacement comes from GAGR -

Alright, but I need to give a month's notice at work and would like to be on deck by the time Super Rugby gets going. So try and get Pulver booted by January and I'll dust off my resume for Cheik.

 

[emus4life]

i was a foundation member of the rams. i found the season to be very entertaining however with the clubs of eastwood,souths,parra,wests and penrith. the need for the club to be strong meant domination by eastwood and souths. parra had only 2 or 3 and 1 each from wests and penrith. the decision by billy melrose to get players from manly and brisbane rubbed alot of people up the wrong way. having just missed the finals was a reasonable effort i guess. was very sad to see jerome mckenzie break his leg in the last match having been the best winger in the nrc.
2015 i would like to see the comp start 2 weeks after shute shield grand final but leave all rules in place. the money concerns are a big worry. apparently some rams players didnt even get paid either.

 

[HighPlainsDrifter]

I went to the Rams /Rising game at Pirtek ... Great ground , good atmosphere from around 1500 crowd , enjoyed watching the women go around in the opener ...Don't follow Rams but well done , keep it up .. there seems to be a future in the NRC if the upper echelons of the game can lift their support ... Nice to see TPN at the game as well ...as was Dave Dennis at the Stars / Rising game earlier in the season .... More Wallabies & Marquee Super 15 players to roll up in the crowds at these matches may help generate more interest , a great way to give back .